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On Sunday she appears in a charity production of The Vagina Monologues as part of a day of action to end violence against women - but this is just a warm-up for her own WE show later this year. She also harbours political ambitions aplenty ("I am American-Italian so I can also stand to be US president") Sebastian Shakespeare finds her flirtatious and in fighting form

Only Nancy Dell’Olio could be both overdressed and underdressed for afternoon tea on a cold, soggy February afternoon. She is sporting a figure-hugging Cavalli outfit and knee-high boots which expose two tanned thighs.

We are meeting in the Bulgari hotel in Knightsbridge to discuss her appearance on Sunday in a charity production of The Vagina Monologues as part of V Day, a global initiative to end violence against women. For one night only, at the Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate, Nancy Dell’Olio, Pauline McLynn, Amy Lamé and Rita Tushingham will star in film-maker Jan Dunn’s production in aid of the Oasis Domestic Abuse Service.

Nancy has been tasked with performing Angry Vagina, which will require her to do a vagina impression and utter such words as “My vagina’s angry. It is. It’s pissed off. My vagina’s furious and it needs to talk.”

Her character delivers a rant of injustices performed against the female orifice by douches, tampons and other invasive medical implements.

Unlike her fellow participants, she has no formal training as an actress, so how will she carry it off?

“I’m never lacking courage and I like new challenges,” says Nancy. “I’ve always loved The Vagina Monologues. I think Eve Ensler [the playwright] is a genius. I was asked to read Angry Vagina and found it very funny. I do hope I’m not going to start laughing.”

In person, Nancy, 51, is far from angry. She is playful, engaging and flirtatious.

“My connection with Margate should be your first question,” she says, trying to drown me in her lash-wide stare. “This is because of Tracey Emin. She is from Margate and I went to see her exhibition. I also have a few very close friends who live close by and I have had wonderful weekends there. It’s part of my countryside.”

What concerns me more than the Margate connection is whether Nancy will be able to make herself understood on stage. After being interviewed on Newsnight a few years ago, very few people — including interviewer Jeremy Paxman — could make sense of a word she said. Happily, Nancy reassures me that she has had a voice coach for her latest role and a PR minder is on hand throughout our interview to interpret the finer nuances of the sex wars.

“How is physical abuse? How do you say?” asks Nancy. “Rape,” prompts her minder.

Domestic violence is a cause very close to her heart, and after ordering some green tea she embarks on her own impassioned diatribe.

“Women need to be protected. This abuse happens every day around the world. It’s quite astonishing, in 2012, that a place such as Oasis exists in England in our modern time. It was shocking to read in the papers when I was last in Italy that in the last six months one to three women were being killed every day from domestic violence. One other thing that shocked me is that these murders are being committed by young men.

“There is something wrong with society. We have a generation of men who are quite insecure and not confident enough, and women are getting stronger and stronger. The men seem to have lost their place, especially if they don’t have the right education, and if they don’t have the job.

“Men are much more vulnerable than women because women always have a way out. The woman has traditionally had a way out in the family, a great career or getting married. I think men of the younger generation and my generation are feeling a lot of insecurity probably because women have been pushing too much.”

Nancy makes it clear that she is here to talk about vaginas in general, not her own, and when I turn the conversation towards her personal life her female PR minder jiggles her leg under the table in some form of pre-scripted semaphore. This vagina monologue has become a vagina duologue.

Has she been on the receiving end of violence? “No. Not physical. But psychological, yes.”

She cites her court case a couple of years ago when she unsuccessfully sued the Daily Mail for calling her “a man-eater”. The previously married Dell’Olio (no children) may be an international lawyer in public affairs but she has become just as renowned for her own public affairs. She has had relationships with former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, former M&S boss Sir Stuart Rose and theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn.

“It was deemed by the judge that for a woman to be called a man-eater is not an offence. But I found that quite offensive,” she says.

Nancy’s train of thought often falls away into a babbling stream of consciousness but she is heroically undeterred by the language barrier. It transpires that her Vagina Monologue is a warm-up act for her one-woman show based on her life story, which is opening in the West End this spring.

“It’s not officially announced. We need to finalise details. But it is coming.”

She has been doing workshops and will undergo six to eight weeks of rehearsals. “It will be quite intense.”

But it is clear that Nancy has her eyes on a bigger role on the political stage. The former Strictly Come Dancing star was approached to stand in the Italian elections later this month but she declined.

“I’ve been asked but I am too busy,” she says. And she will not rule out participating in Britain politics sometime in the future ...

“It will come later in my life. Yes, I am considering it but to be an MP in England I need to have British citizenship. I am American-Italian. So I can also stand to be US president,” she says.

Her flirtatiousness extends to her political affiliations.

“I am more close to Labour but there are some ideas I have which are Conservative and some ideas I share with the Liberals.” She is a supporter of gay marriage, which some may find at odds with her Catholicism.

“Of course I support gay marriage. You can be Catholic and support gay marriage.” And she is a passionate Europhile. “I think it would be a big mistake for Britain to leave the EU. I am thinking of joining the campaign to keep Britain in Europe.”

Until then she has a few issues to resolve, such as where she is going to live. She is currently single — “I’m not in a relationship” — but is still in a legal tussle with Eriksson over their Eaton Place home in Belgravia. Eriksson is believed to have allowed Dell’Olio to stay in his house rent-free for a year after they split in 2007 but she is still there.

“We can’t talk about those issues now. We are still talking and still trying to make a deal.” It seems that she sees Sven more often than recent press reports would suggest. “Every time we meet doesn’t come up in the press,” she says, giving me a knowing look.

“It’s always sad to be dealing with lawyers when I personally think it could be easily dealt with directly. I do hope it’s resolved soon as it’s a page I want to close.”

Meanwhile there are lots of new pages she wants to open. She is writing a book about the food and history of Puglia, a self-help book called How to Be Nancy and has embarked on writing her first novel. She gives E L James short shrift. “I found Fifty Shades was boring.”

That’s one crime you could never accuse Nancy of. Overdressed, yes, underdressed, yes, but never boring.